If you are reading this article while you should be sleeping, or while sweating in a tank top when it is 10 degrees outside, or while melting down during a meditation or yoga class, you are not alone.
If you found this piece while scrolling after being irrationally frustrated about a work situation or ruminating over the ten extra pounds that appeared on your waist despite clean eating and regularly working out, or while desperately seeking to understand if brain fog is normal for someone your age, you are not alone.
You are in fact, in great company, we just were taught not to speak about “the change” publicly. I’m not an expert on perimenopause, menopause, or any woman’s health issue. I am a woman, just like you, trying to figure out how to live, work and function while feeling like I am burning up from the core of my being, who happens to work in Well-being, and knows we need to talk about these issues more, especially in the workplace.
A few days ago, feeling exhausted and hot (not in a good way), I wrote something about perimenopause and menopause on LinkedIn. After 15 minutes of journaling about what I was going through, I picked up my iPhone, typed the words into a post and hit send. It was terrifying. Then the comments started: women I had worked with for years, women I had never met and possibly never will, men supporting their partners and friends, and this moved me to tears (it wasn’t just the menopause, though, I have found uncontrollable tears to be a side effect). Most importantly, it gave me peace. I was not alone in my pool of sweat. There are millions of women in the workplace and the world, and we are all going through this together.
This isn’t my typical piece of writing where I can offer a top five list of tips or do anything to magically make the pain go away. Trust me, if I could, I would. I have found strength training helpful, and I do love journalling followed by meditation. Not to mention, the cardigan which is my new best friend.
What I really want to offer is community, conversation and hope. You are not alone. We are not alone. And the only way we are going to get through this time is together.
Please share your experiences with perimenopause and menopause below.